The Policy Process & Roles of the
Institutions of Government
Dr. East 02/2016
What is a policy?
• Ans. = rules, procedures, a plan or program of
action to deal with a problem or an issue
• Government creates policies and plans to deal
with problems
• Ability to do this is granted by laws and each
branch of government gets involved in public
policies -- those policies that are designed to
help you and enhance public good
– What was this again?
Steps in the Policy Making Process
1) Problem
Recognition
2) Agenda
Setting
3) Policy
Formulation
• People identify a problem, issue that disturbs or hurts
them that government(s) might be able to solve
• Government(s) recognize that a problem is worthy of
government attention and intervention
• People identify various approaches to solving the
problem… involves data gathering, investigation,
discussions with experts to create a
plan/policy/strategy/program, etc.
Policy Making Process Cont.
4) Policy
Adoption
• the formal selection of policies through various means…a vote, creation
of a new law, executive decisions or actions, judicial decrees (decisions)
… often involves some campaigning and persuading
• Finding funds to pay for the policy initiation and implementation… in a
federal setting, if it is a policy funded by law, the House of
5) Budget Representatives has the “power of the purse”
Processes
6) Policy
Implementation
• the actual administration or application of the policy … this is where a
lot of good plans go wrong!
Policy Making Processes Cont.
7) Policy
Evaluation
• People study the effectiveness of the policy,
check for accomplishments, shortcomings, etc.
• Upon results of evaluation, people choose to
continue the policies, revise the polices, do away
8) Revise
with the policies, or create new ones to address
and/or Create
the shortcomings of the policies
New Policy
1.
How do Policy Agendas get set?
Concerned citizens banning together to become
special interest groups
–
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
some have Political Action Committees (PACs) that
raise money to affect politics and pay for lobbyists
(people paid to contact legislators to get their
interests heard and addressed)
Political parties have agendas related to their
party platforms (set of ideals and things they
want to accomplish)…. Since politicians are
members of parties this platform influences
agenda
President comes into office with an agenda that
he want Congress to address… when gov. is
divided this may or may not be an actionable
agenda
World crisis's or natural disasters that need new
or better responses
Media attention on various phenomenon (things,
issues)
Public polling and surveys by media that gain the
attention of ambitious politicians
More on Policy Formulation: Specifics,
Specifics, Specifics…
• It takes a lot of research to create a
plan… consulting with experts, scientists,
concerned citizens, etc. … devil in the
details…
• the plan or strategy of the policy needs
to be general enough to let legislators
and executives have some leeway with
how it gets adopted and implemented …
especially if this is a federal policy that
must be implemented across various
states
• Yet it has to have specific goals to be met,
specific strategies designed to deal with
an issue… it also has to have measures
that will access the success or failure of
the policy over time… targets to be met
and plans for evaluation of the
achievement of those targets
More on Implementation
• How a program, policy, law is
administered largely determines the
success or failure of the policy in solving
an issue
• Can you think of some examples of
failure to implement properly?
• The Federal Bureaucracy and the
Executive Branch take the lead in
implementing federal policies
– Locally it would be county board decisions
and county departments; state-wide this
would be the Governor and state
departments
More on Evaluation
• Everybody has a hand in this…
– Federal Agencies have reporting requirements on various
programs and their achievement targets
– the public has it’s opinions that get broadcast by media
– Congress can review the implementation of all programs in
congressional hearings
– The Judiciary can get involved if people sue because they
think a policy or program is unconstitutional or unfairly
administered such that it hurts some people or cause more
problems
– Government Accountability Office – GAO, investigates all
government funded programs for effectiveness
Groups & People involved in Making Federal Policies
• President and EOP (National Security Council, Council of Economic
Advisors, the Office of Management & Budget, and Office of Trade
Representatives, and Office of Vice President)
– State of the Union Speech in Jan. – comes to it with a policy agenda,
campaigns & gets elected with a policy agenda … agenda relates back
to his role as Chief of Political Party and the party’s platform
– Gives budget proposals to Congress, these are created by the Office of
Management & Budget (OMB), part of the Executive Office of
President (EOP) … related to his role as Chief Exec. & Adminstrator
– Manages operations of executive departments (the Cabinet) and
agencies and gives executive orders about operations… also related to
the above roles
• Ex. Truman gave exec. order ending segregation in military; Obama
rescinded Clinton’s “Don’t ask; Don’t Tell” making it legal to be
“out” in the Military; Obama gave the delayed deportation order
for parents of young children that grew up in America.
– Approval or veto power - Signs only certain bills into law
• Members of Congress Work in Committees to
make laws and approve spending for Gov.
programs
– See names of standing committees, pg. 247
– Ex. Homeland Security Committee and Visa
Waiver Program Improvement Act (2015)
– See list of committees,
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/
Special Interest Groups help make
policies by Lobbying Politicians
• What was lobbying?
– Lobbyist = Professional hired by corporations and
special interest groups to:
• Testify before congressional committees about various
issues
• Meet with influential members of Congress
• Research issues and gather data that support their group’s
interests, work can sway members of Congress in either the
construction of bills or for passage or not of votes on bills
• Lead members within interest groups in ways to contact
legislators
• Fund leaders that support specific issues through campaign
funds paid by the Political Action Committees (PACs) of
interest groups
• Litigate in the courts for or against rules, acts, and
regulations that impact the members of the these special
interest groups
Examples of Politically Important
Special Interest Groups
• See this list for interest groups:
http://votesmart.org/interestgroups#.VsIOBvE0pow
• Examples:
– American Association of Retire Persons (AARP)
– American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO)
– National Rifle Association (NRA)
– National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
– Sierra club
– National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP)
Policy Making - Iron Triangles
Concept
Example: Tobacco
Policy
More often today policy making occurs
via a more extensive Issues Network
• Includes the traditional iron triangle member groups but
also includes
• Experts from universities,
• Experts from professional societies
• Research consultants
• corporate R&D
• investigative journalists, and
• members of the courts
Often members of these issues networks become alliances
called Interagency Councils or Policy Coordinating Committees
– Ex. Interagency Council on Homelessness or
– Ex. Emerging Technologies Interagency Policy Coordinating
Committee
Issue Network for Health Care
In-Class Assignment
Part A: Explain an APS policy that you think has some problems. In a
short paragraph, explain the problem with the policy. Discuss where
the policy went wrong - in formulation, implementation, or budget,
etc. and, explain how to evaluate this existing policy in order to revise
it or or scrap it and make a new policy.
Part B:
With your partner, determine a type of policy area (like tobacco policy
or health care policy, but don’t do those) and …
#1 draw an iron triangle for this policy area, specifically naming the
parts of the triangle and,
#2 draw a larger issue network that works in this policy area,
specifically labeling members of the network
Turn in the paragraph and both graphics for a team grade. Due at start
of next class.